Facing Anxiety & Taking Back Control | Sammy King & PhD Phoebe Drioli-Phillips

Sammy King is now a Peer Support Worker at Australia's leading youth mental health organisation, Headspace. The same group that helped him come to grips with a crippling anxiety disorder just a few years ago. Sammy was a master of masking his true feelings and convincing those around him that he was the happy go lucky, life of the party guy, who wasn't rattled by anything. But the reality couldn't be further from the truth; inside he was falling apart and spiraling towards a mental breakdown. Sammy was in his late teens when he started feelings anxious all the time and uncomfortable in his own skin. It only got worse as he went through uni and came to a head when he entered the workforce, forcing him away from the life he envision and into a dark depression. Sammy's story is one that millions of Aussies dealing with anxiety disorder will relate to. It's the most prevalent mental health condition in our society and also one that's not clearly understood by the majority. On this episode Sammy paints a picture of just how detrimental anxiety can become to someone's life. We talk about the difficulty of admitting you need help and the life changing benefits that can be achieved in going out and finding it. From enduring paralysing panic attacks to using all his strength just to get out of bed, Sammy shares his worst memories, his advice and his positive message for anyone going through the same thing.